


A Way Can Be Found

by kaizoku



Category: Dogsbody - Diana Wynne Jones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-24
Updated: 2007-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-25 02:39:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1627148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaizoku/pseuds/kaizoku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Way Can Be Found

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks very much to sexybee for the wonderful, post-midnight beta.
> 
> Written for Brown Betty

 

 

"If you really wish it, it can be brought about that you and your dog understand one another," the man with red eyes had said. He had warned her that she might regret it but it was what she wanted most of all: to hear Leo. He understood her - Kathleen didn't know how, but he did. She wanted to understand him.

Miss Smith almost seemed to understand him. She called him Sirius, and somehow that seemed more right than "Leo." Kathleen had felt a little jealous at first of the old lady her dog apparently visited often, and guilty that Leo had not been comfortable in the Duffields' home. But then Miss Smith had brought Kathleen in and given her a cup of tea and listened to her more than her uncle's family ever had, and she knew why Leo loved Miss Smith.

Leo was not a normal dog, Kathleen had gradually realized. When she was ten she had found him half-drowned in the river. Even then, she had looked into his eyes and seen a strange, shifting green something - something vast, yet warm. It was calming and disturbing at once. He was also intelligent, more intelligent than most dogs, she thought. She was certain he had known what Duffie was saying to her tonight. She thought of the time Leo had attacked the boys who were teasing her. She thought she had seen a pale green cloud around him, just for a few seconds as he jumped on Alex Osmund from school. She had dismissed it as imagination or distress or some effect of the sun.

But it was plainly obvious that Leo and the man were talking to each other. Leo wasn't barking or making any noise, but the man responded to him as if he had said something.

The man said he would do it, that he would give them all their wishes. But then the white lady and the blue-green man came.

The underworld - for that was where they were, Kathleen knew - shook and the darkness peeled back and the two people were there, just like that. The moss under their feet burned away and there was a strange stench in the air, like flowers and bleach together. Kind of like laundry detergent but worse, Kathleen thought. Behind them was the cleared patch where they had come from.

Kathleen saw Leo try to run, but then the white one had him.

"No!" She cried out. "You can't take him!"

The white one laughed. "This must be the little girl. You think you can stop us?"

She held out her hand and a beam of white light shot out - 

And stopped, shimmered in the air, and then dissipated.

"I won't let you hurt them," the man with red eyes said. "This is my place."

The white lady tried to take a step closer but it was like she was walking into an invisible wall.

"What is this? We're luminaries! How _dare_ you!"

"I govern this whole system," the blue man said. "You can't do this."

Kathleen had no idea what they were talking about. She stared, anguished, at Leo. The woman had a strong grip on his neck with her white fingers; he struggled but could get nowhere.

"Make them let him go!" she said to red-eyed man, Arawn, if that was what he was.

"I can't," he said in his hollow voice. "The dog is not of this world."

"You won't be able to hold us here for long," said the blue one. He and the white one shot rays of blue and white light, so many that light filled the space in which they were confined. Kathleen winced, fearing desperately for Leo.

Arawn inclined his head. "Perhaps not. But I can hold you until daylight. Then you must deal with Sol."

The white one glared at Arawn. Then she looked at Kathleen. She pursed her lips and then smiled sickly-sweet.

"Bring us the Zoi, girl. That object over there." She pointed at the grey meteorite. "Then we'll let your dog go."

Kathleen could tell that she was like Duffie - _worse_ than Duffie. And she had an inkling of who the "burglars" that had burned marks into the walls and destroyed the sofa were.

"You're lying," she said.

The woman smiled unpleasantly.

"Then I'll kill your dog." She shot a pulse of white light directly at Leo. Kathleen screamed.

Leo writhed as the energy hit him and vibrated through him. Then his body flared green and the white woman nearly lost her hold on him. The light from her hand winked out. Leo whimpered in pain, hanging from her hand.

"I can keep doing that," the woman said angrily. "Shouldn't take too long to kill him."

Kathleen was crying. Robin and Basil were frozen, staring at the woman holding the dog with horror. Arawn watched and said nothing.

"If I give it to you, do you promise to go away and not try to hurt any of us?" Kathleen asked, her voice quavering. She didn't trust the white woman. But if she would just stop hurting Leo...

"Yes, I promise," the woman said solemnly, and Kathleen decided she had no choice but to believe her. She didn't know why they wanted it. It was just a meteorite. She would give it to her, and then she hoped these awful people would go away and never come back. Kathleen turned to get it...

And heard Leo bark.

In the Duffield household, Leo had learned early not to bark: that he, or more likely, Kathleen, would be yelled at if he did. But he had a loud, deep bark, the kind that promised violence and teeth marks even if it did not deliver. Kathleen had heard it so rarely she almost did not recognize it, but it made her gasp and turn back.

This was the loudest, sharpest barking that she had ever heard from Leo.

"Shut up!" The woman yelled.

But it in that second, Kathleen realized that she wasn't just hearing barks. She heard words. She didn't know where they were coming from - she looked wildly at the other people but none of them had their mouths open. It _had_ to be Leo. His hackles were up, and his eyes were beaming bright green.

"Leo?" She said, hardly believing it.

"Kathleen! Don't do it!" She still heard the barks but underneath somehow, there were words!

"Leo! I can hear you!"

Then there was snap and a burst of bright white light. The dog slumped to the ground.

"No!" She yelled.

"He's close to dead." The woman snarled. "Bring it, now!"

She hesitated, undecided. Leo had told her - _told_ her! - not to, but he would die if she did not.

The man with red eyes made an aborted movement when she came close to pick it up. She picked it up with two hands and almost dropped it, it was so heavy. It made her fingers tingle. She lifted it and turned back to carry it to the woman, when suddenly Basil blocked her way, trying to grab the meteorite from her.

"Basil!" she shrieked.

"He promised it to me! It's mine!" Basil said defiantly, trying to wrestle it from her grasp.

"It's just an old meteorite!" Kathleen said, holding it close to her. "If I don't give it to them -" Basil wrenched her arm, and she dropped it. It fell, hit the ground and began to sink into the earth.

And then Arawn was there and he had it.

He had been at least ten paces away, Kathleen thought. She didn't know how he was there so suddenly in time to catch it. She stared fearfully at the ground. It had seemed like the meteorite would have just kept sinking and sinking.

"Please let me give it to them," Kathleen begged Arawn.

Basil too stared at him, a stubborn expression on his face.

"It was _my_ wish," he said. "You promised."

The man with red eyes bent his great horned head lower. He said nothing for a long moment. Kathleen noticed it was growing brighter on the side where the blue man and white woman had entered.

"Your dog, Sirius, told me what this is capable of," he said. "It can change things, give or take life. If you give it to those two, they will use it to kill all of us. And I cannot use it in my present form."

Kathleen closed her eyes. She was confused, but she thought she knew where he was going. There was nothing they could do. And the white lady would not keep her promise. They wouldn't even spare Leo. Truthfully, she had known that all along, but she had not wanted to admit it to herself.

"But you are humans," Arawn said and then stopped.

They stared at him. He looked disgruntled.

"You're humans, so _you_ can use it."

Basil held out his hands. "Give it to me."

"What will you do?" the man asked. "Make them go away."

"How?" Kathleen asked. She didn't think Basil should be handling something that powerful and dangerous. Who knew what he would do?

"Trust me," Basil said and when she looked at him, his eyes were clear and confident.

"Don't hurt anyone, Basil," Kathleen cautioned.

He didn't say anything.

The man stooped and gave him the meteorite. Basil wrapped both arms around it. He turned toward the man and woman, still trapped inside the barrier, looking determined. The sky looked even lighter over there. Kathleen hovered close to him nervously.

Arawn cleared his throat.

They turned back to look at him.

"Will you do something for me, before you do whatever it is you're going to do? It's almost daylight." Kathleen and Basil were confused.

"I am a child of the night," he continued, a note of hope entering his flat voice. "I want to be like my ancestors, to walk in the day without frightening people."

"Getting rid of those bloody great antlers would be a start," Basil said.

"I want you to make me a being of the light. Will you do that?"

Basil looked unsure.

"Give it a try," he muttered.

And abruptly, without any fanfare, it was done. The horned man was still there, his eyes the same red, but where before he had always been cloaked in darkness, now it was as if someone had turned on a light. The shadows fell away. He smiled and that too seemed less gloomy.

"Thank you."

The sun broke over the top of the hills and Arawn looked up. And then, for a while, he seemed to be engaged in a kind of silent argument. Kathleen realized that the dark fog that had begun just above the man's head was now gone and they were back on the hill where they had started.

But with it, the spell on the white woman and blue man had broken, Kathleen suddenly saw. They were rushing towards them, the woman still grasping Leo by the neck.

"Basil, give me the meteorite!" Kathleen demanded.

"What?" He said, looking up. "Oh no."

"Quick! I have an idea."

He shoved it into her hands.

She concentrated. "Make them normal people," she murmured out loud. She could feel Basil looking at her, and then there was a whoosh of feeling, like something had left her hands, but she was still gripping the object.

The man and the woman stopped, about two yards away. The woman was still pale, with white hair and light eyes, and the man had a bluish cast to him, but they no longer _glowed_ white and blue the way they had before. They stopped in place, and seemed confused and then horrified.

The woman dropped Leo - threw him to the ground in her anger. Kathleen thrust the meteorite back into Basil's hands and ran to Leo.

He was breathing. But he was so battered and bedraggled. Patches of his fur were burned away, the skin raw and red.

Kathleen felt herself about to cry again.

"Oh, Leo," she murmured, cradling him gently.

His eyes blinked open, the green of them cloudy. They focused slowly on her.

"Ow," the dog said.

Kathleen blinked and then hugged him to her. And then she did cry again, from relief.

  
  
  


The police showed up soon after, along with Mr. Duffield and Miss Smith, who argued over who was going to take Kathleen home (a novel experience for her if there ever was one.) A vet was called for Leo, and Kathleen said goodbye to Basil and Robin, for the time being, and Leo and she went back to Miss Smith's house. Kathleen was pleased to see the police animatedly questioning the white woman and blue man as they left.

Before she gave the meteorite back to Basil, Kathleen had made a wish that it would stop doing things. She hoped it worked.

A few days later, around sunrise, Kathleen woke up to hear Leo talking to someone. His wet nose was pushed up almost against the window, right where a beam of sunlight was coming through.

"Well, tell them I'm _not_ coming back. Not right away, at least."

The beam of sunlight seemed to play back and forth over the glass.

"I don't care what Polaris says!"

Another pause. Who was he talking to?

"Replace me? Oh, wonderful," Leo growled low in his throat. "No, definitely _not_ another Castor! I'd take one of the Pleiades over them!"

More sunlight flooded into the room. Kathleen yawned and stretched.

"That's an idea," Leo said, sounding surprised. "I wouldn't have thought you'd let him, though. Isn't he something of a thorn in your side? Ah, I see. Hmm. Well, he can't be worse than _them_."

Kathleen wandered over and tried to see whatever it was Leo was staring at. It seemed like he was looking directly into the recently-risen sun.

"Hi, Leo," she said. He pushed his muzzle against her and she petted him.

"Alright, sounds fine," Leo said to the unseen person. "Tell him I'll be back at some point, though. And I'll be bringing my new Companion." 

 


End file.
